The present invention relates to a special purpose computer having a visual display which is capable of providing realistic graphic simulations. More particularly, the present invention provides a programmable operator interactive video simulator particularly useful for playing video games.
Electronic video game machines are well known in the game art. Typically, such devices utilize conventional raster scan television broadcast receivers connected to special circuits generating television compatible signals. The signals generated by such game circuits cause dots, squares, or other overly simplified and crude objects to appear on the television screen. Usually the crude geometric objects are said to represent more complex objects necessarily requiring substantial imagination on the part of the operator to perceive the intended representation. The poor simulation quality is a problem which is inherent in a standard television receiver employing a raster scan display. With standard television receivers, solid diagonal or vertical lines are not possible, and specification of objects other than extremely simple ones require substantial quantities of complex data at high speeds.
Existing video game machines are inflexible. A machine designed to simulate a rebound game such as ping-pong would require substantial changes in circuitry before it could be utilized for simulating, for example, a road race with any degree of realism. Also, the computational abilities of most prior art electronic game systems are very limited, thereby causing displayed objects to move along simple and unrealistic trajectories. The limited computational power of those machines additionally limits the number of different situation an operator can find himself in, causing the interest generated by the introduction of a new game to be lost very quickly.
On the other hand, complex high speed general purpose computers have heretofore been used with peripheral graphic display systems to generate sophisticated visual simulations. While such systems are limited only by factors such as programming and as such are capable of playing fascinating games with visually realistic simulations, the high costs of such systems heretofore make them entirely impractical and unavailable in the video amusement art.